Thursday, 29 June 2017

I do not have a cat of my own, but I grew up with a cat and two of my siblings have cats, so when the prompt for week 26 of the Art Journal Prompts page was pets, it was an easy choice to make. It's not that I have anything against dogs, but I am definitely more of a cat person. This page is dedicated to Mizzy (RIP), Mr Boots, Mittens, Socks and Suzy Shoes.

Wednesday, 28 June 2017

Well, this time next week I will be in Berlin with a group of Y8 pupils, so unable to join in with the pleasures of WOYWW. I will also be foregoing the pleasure of my friend's regular crafty company on Tuesday. However, although there are still some bits and pieces to finalise before we set off at silly o'clock on Monday morning, I am making the most of today's session ready to share with all. I don't know how many desks I'll be able to visit this week with getting everything ready, so many apologies in advance. I'll be making up for it in the summer holidays!

My side of the desk shows the items that I used to make the tag you see on the right hand side of the desk (for further details you can check it out HERE).

As usual my friend is working on backgrounds and toppers ready to make into cards at home.

Close up!

If you'd like to know more about why we share our desks each week, check out The Stamping Ground, where all will be revealed by our fabulous host, Julia.

Monday, 26 June 2017

I call this my junk journal, not because I have created it myself, but because I use an old notebook for the challenges for the Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art group. It is not a 'proper' journal as I have to glue pages together to make them strong enough to work on (usually 3 pages). Although I was introduced to the group fairly early on (I was about member 150) and the group has since grown to over 7000, I missed the first few challenges. My first challenge was #4 Brown, Gold, Teal with the theme Circles. I haven't missed any challenges since and look forward to seeing what this evening brings for challenge 24 (always 3 colours and a theme). I was very wary early on about the types of media I used in the journal, but these days I'll use anything from acrylic paint to Brushos and Pixie Powders, although I mix these with distress collage medium rather than spraying with water to avoid getting the pages too wet.

Challenge 4: Brown, Teal, Gold, Circles

Challenge 5: Blue, Purple, Silver, Diamonds

Red, White, Blue, Lips

Turquoise, Lime Green, Red, Peace - I wasn't happy with this page.

Ivory, Copper, Royal Blue, Science

Burnt Orange, Olive Green, Tan, Nature

Pink, Blue, Silver, Heavenly - I won this one!

The challenge I set: Red, Orange, Brown, Strength

Black, Green, Pink, Feathers

Red, Green, Blue, Buttons

Purple, Cream, Gold, Lessons Learned

Green, Blue, Yellow, Into the Wild Woods

Pink, Orange, Yellow, Sunshine - my favourite colours so far.

Pink, Turquoise, Brown, Music

Purple, Orange, Green, Change

Pink, Green, Blue, Tolerance

Blue, Turquoise, Sand/Ochre, Seaside

Red, Pink, Orange, Watch the Birdie

Green, Gold, Purple, Reflection

There are very few of these pages that I didn't like by the time I had finished them. Some colour combinations were more challenging than others. I think that I am more prepared to take risks by being part of this group, so thanks for having me and I know new members are always welcome, so come and join us! If you want more information about how each page was created, they can all be found on my blog under 2017.

Saturday, 24 June 2017

For the first time ever in 2017 I am completely up to date with the Art Journal Prompts and waiting for the new one to be published tomorrow! For week 25 the prompt was time, which gave me the excuse to work with some more of the stamps and dies from the Time Traveller collection by Sheena Douglass.

Friday, 23 June 2017

This is my June mini mission for the Mission Inspiration group. As usual I have ended up completing the mini mission before the main mission and have worked on a #8 Maniila tag. This prompt was easy to complete (can't think why LOL). I am also entering it in the Tag Tuesday fortnightly challenge.

Thursday, 22 June 2017

Just as I caught up with the back log from earlier in the year, I fell behind with the more recent prompts. This is for week 24 on Art Journal Prompts: Graffiti/Grunge/Urban and I have another page to complete before Sunday to be completely up to date. As you can see, I took the prompt literally.

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Reports are written for another year (170 final total) so I should have time to visit a few desks this week. Thanks to everyone who called across without me returning the visit, this week I shall try to get to everyone by the weekend. It's far too hot for me at the moment. I'm sitting here in shorts with the window and door of my shed open (nets up and blinds down) to keep out the sun and allow a through breeze and it's still nearly 30 degrees Celsius /nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit). Lots of excitements this week. I had a fabulous day out at the Create-It show in Telford with my crafty friend; met some Facebook friends (but no WOYWWers); came third in the competition (only four entries lol) but most amazingly of all ended up with 15 minutes of fame on live crafting TV (Hochanda), crafting alongside the amazing Sheena Douglass. For a full description of the day and pictures see HERE. Until Saturday you can watch the show on rewind on www.hochanda.com; it was the 11am show on Saturday 17th June.Anyway, back to the reason for our Wednesday blogging (for a full explanation, please go to the Stamping Ground where Julia can give you the low down). Here is my desk with all the lovely stash I bought on Saturday. I bought the Clean Colour Kuretake pens with my prize money; the items on the far right were from the goodie bag for VIP ticket holders and I also visited the IndigoBlu stall, Chloe, HobbyArt and Bee Crafty stands as you can see. I also bought some MDF cats from the Inkylicious stand.

On the other side of the desk, my friend is playing with some of her purchases; six of the distress oxides and some Phill Martin stencils, creating backgrounds.

I have been reorganising my inks. I bought a new storage rack and finally have all my inks in one place easily accessible.

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

I thought I'd work on some gift boxes as a change from art journaling, card making or tag creating. These are a decent size for small gifts such as a scarf, sweets or votive candles and can be made to look completely different just with a change of colour and decoration. I haven't added any side panels with additional stamped images or words yet, but I may well do so.

Sunday, 18 June 2017

I had the most amazing day out at Create-It Telford yesterday and although I am not going back today, I'd like to share the events of the day; little did I know when I set out with my best crafty friend, that I would be appearing on live TV before the day was out.

Saturday, 17 June 2017

The reports are finished, but I'm too tired to create any new art tonight so I thought I'd do a pictorial flick through of my Art Journal Prompts journal. I didn't come across this group until week 9, but I have finally caught up with the backlog so I only have to keep up with each weekly prompt as it is posted each Sunday. So here is a whistle stop tour through each page. I have previously blogged step by steps to each of them if you do want details of any of them.

Thursday, 15 June 2017

I must admit, that having finally caught up with all of the previous Art Journal Prompts, this was the first prompt that I saw when I joined the group, and the one which I put off working on the longest. Most of the examples that I saw in the album involved using actual material, and I really couldn't come up with any ideas at the time. During the subsequent weeks, I have learnt to think outside the box, and quite often search for quotes involving the prompt, to give me a starting point for a page. As I was determined not to put this page off for any longer, I found the quote which I eventually used and the entire page fell into place! This is now probably one of my favourite pages of the 23 that I have completed so far.

Wednesday, 14 June 2017

It's that time of the year again; report writing deadlines are looming! Everyone is busy trying to get a head start on the next academic year and the school visit to Berlin is in 3 weeks. It's also that time of the week to share desks hosted by Julia over on the Stamping Ground. My photo was taken yesterday, as today is the day set aside to finalise all remaining reports, so sorry if I don't get to do any visiting this week. Even the next few days blog posts have already been prepared in advance!As you can tell, my desk has been staged; both my friend and I were working on the prom invites and they are top secret. So if any of my Y8 pupils are reading this; nice try, but I won't be giving any spoilers. I did manage to get an art journal page completed however (for details see HERE). My friend didn't have much time for her own crafting this week and I am most grateful to her for her help with the invitations. She did however manage to get some new stamps mounted up and cut out. She also bought over all the cards that she made with the toppers that she was working on last week as she knows how much you like to see them. We are off to Telford on Saturday to visit the Create-It show, so if there is anyone else going, give us a shout out and we can meet for a coffee.

Monday, 12 June 2017

I have just finished this tag in time to add to the collection on the Tag Tuesday challenge page before the next challenge begins. The current fortnightly theme is animals and once again I couldn't resist using one of the Hipster stamps and matching die set #hipforsummer.

Saturday, 10 June 2017

I did not take too long to create this page once I had found the quote. This is for challenge 20 on Junk Journals Junkies and Mindful Art and is limited to the colours blue, turquoise, Ochre/Sand and the theme of Seaside. For once I did very little stamping; the starfish being the only item using a stamp.

Thursday, 8 June 2017

Yet another catch up page; I am determined to get fully up to date with these weekly prompts from Nina Ribena in Art Journal Prompts. This one is from week 7, 'Fill your heart' and is on the opposite page to the Believe page which I completed on Tuesday. For that reason, I decided on a yellow/orange background to coordinate with the blue page opposite.

Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Boy, the weeks seem to go round faster and faster. I had another lovely ATC from Sandra de with an amazing card all the way from Australia, so I hope that she's received my tag too.

The ATC (along with the others I received for the 8th anniversary of WOYWW) take pride of place on the wall of my shed, together with a plaque which sums up how I feel about my creative space and a couple of post cards; so if anyone is ever in the area (Stoke on Trent), let me know and you are welcome to visit.Well I suppose I should share my desk as that is the whole purpose of today. To find out more go to our lovely hostess Julia's blog, where she will explain all.

I was working on an art journal page with the prompt 'Believe' so decided to use a quote from an ABBA song. To see the finished page see HERE). The pictures were taken yesterday as usual when I was busy procraftinating with my friend (I love this new word, it sums up my life!). I passed on all the lovely compliments about her cards from last week.

This week she was painting with Pixie Powders over stamped and heat embossed images on backgrounds which were created in the shed last week. You can see her mop up journal underneath.